About The Owner
Ian Westmoreland
I was born in Oregon where I grew up on a farm in the 1970‘s. In the late 1970’s my family moved to Eugene, Oregon where I spent my school years. In 1979 my family traveled to Japan where my grandfather was working as an engineer.
We spent three months living in Japan, this put the travel bug in me for life! In 1990 when I was just seventeen years old I got my first Land Cruiser, a 1987 FJ60 with 40,000 miles on it. This was also my first 4wd.
I took my first road trips as an adult in this truck up and down the west coast of the United States from Los Angeles to Seattle and I also learned to off-road in it.
This planted some seeds within me and adventures to come later in my life.
In 1996 I moved to Jackson, Wyoming where I owned and opperated landscape company for nineteen years. My company was seasonal allowing me to travel in the winter months as well as work on trucks in the off season. I have been an outdoor enthusiast my entire life enjoying activities like kayaking, snowboarding, surfing, rock climbing, backpacking, rafting, fishing and more! Land Cruisers get me out to destinations to pursue these activities. I am a well versed Land Cruiser mechanic having performed work on my own trucks since I was a teenager.
In 2009 after having spent the last few winters traveling overseas to countries like Australia and Colombia I decided to prepare my 2004 Toyota Tacoma and drive it to Panama. Over the next four months, I drove more than 15,000 miles through Latin America with the final destination being Santa Catalina, Panama. All but two weeks on this trip was spent camping out of the back of the truck. More than a month was spent in Panama before driving back to the United States. I enjoyed this method of travel so much the following winter I did another drive down to Panama and back in that same Tacoma.
In the summer of 2016, I decided to prepared my 2000 Toyota UZJ100 Land Cruiser for another drive south. After the build (which took about six months), I sold all of my possessions, moved out of my house and took off driving south. Once I reached Panama I turned around again and drove back to the USA. On this trip, I again covered more than 15,000 miles over the course of five months and I spent a lot of those miles hunting for Land Cruisers.
Since this time I have founded South to North Land Cruisers and can be found building Cruisers in our shop here in Idaho.
Our Team
Let’s talk about your Toyota Land Cruiser project
Want us to help you build your dream Toyota Land Cruiser? Get in touch with us and we’ll get back to you soon.
